Photos are an expected part of almost any visit to Disneyland. Whether it’s first-time international visitors or longtime returnees, just about everyone is clicking photos at some point. That everyone, however, is extending more and more to Disneyland personnel. My colleague Hannah Fry documented the growing use of facial recognition technology at the Happiest Place on Earth. Privacy experts are sounding the alarm, while some patrons are trying their best to avoid the technology. Let’s dive into her reporting to see what’s going on. Under the mouse’s eye Photographs of guests’ faces taken at the entrances to Disneyland and sister park California Adventure are run through biometric technology to convert the images into unique numerical values. The images can then be compared with pictures taken when a customer first used the ticket or annual pass. “Pretty much every other place is doing the same thing,” said John LeSchofs, 73, who visits the park roughly every six weeks with his wife. “The police, the government, they’re all using facial recognition. I don’t think it’s going to stop.” Disney officials say the technology helps make entering and reentering the park easier and prevents fraud. Sounding the alarm The rapid growth of facial recognition over the last decade has raised concerns among privacy experts who caution that such data can easily be turned over to law enforcement entities or make companies hacking targets. “The normalization of facial surveillance is really problematic,” said Ari Waldman, a professor of law at UC Irvine. “We can’t go around life hiding our faces, so this isn’t just [the] next step in surveillance; it’s qualitatively different. In a world of facial recognition, when people leave their house, it automatically means they’re identified.” Following a familiar pattern Venues over the last decade have increasingly relied on facial recognition to